Wayne Enterprises Investigates
by Lasgalendil
Summary: Well, hello there! I'm Lucius Fox, CEO and Chair of Wayne Enterprises. Mr. Edward Nigma and myself currently have our best Research and Development team working full time on an internal review market trend analysis to help fanfiction investors like you receive as many reviews as possible (and perhaps solve some riddles along the way). As always, it's a pleasure doing business.
1. Chapter 1

Well goodness gracious me, it's that time again already. It seems the Review Board gets earlier and earlier every year, and it seems our clients are more concerned with their Reviews than ever before.

WE stock is holding steady, what with the release of that last movie. When was that again? Oh, yes. July of 2012. The Dark Knight Rises. It was, as they say, fairly well received, although nothing compared to that Bull market back in '08. A very good year. Especially so for JOKER FICs, Inc., one of our multiple exclusive investment opportunities. CRANE Corp., and BANE UNITED have also been among our top sellers.

Well, as you can see from these statistics, we're riding the fanfiction recession fairly well. Four years between movies…now that's a long time. It's difficult to stay successful with so little source material, as you can understand. But despite all those hardships, Wayne Enterprises has managed to stay firm in the top ten of the fanfiction Movie Market. Though do I have to say, being beat out by Labyrinth, Newsies and High School Musical has been a source of embarrassment for all of us.

But don't let that fact get you down. As a fandom, you can see we're still going strong. With over six thousand separate FANFIC investments, you can see that Wayne Enterprises is still as safe as ever. We take personal pride in caring for your FANFICs, and on that you have my guarantee.

I'm Lucius Fox, by the way. CEO of Wayne Enterprises and Chairman of the Board. Our company might have the Wayne name, but when it comes to making business…let's just say you'll be dealing with me. Mr. Wayne, as I suppose you _have _heard, has since diversified his interests. While we might not be a family business anymore, we still carry a family name, and that means family values. All of us here participate in the ownership of this corporation, and we'll do our best to handle your fanfics as if they were our own.

So let's see what Wayne Enterprises and I can do to make sure your fanfiction portfolio comes through ahead of the curve.

Certainly. But first we'll have to look at the market statistics. Which market was it you were interested in today?

NOVEL LENGTH, BESTSELLER stock

Ah. I see what's piqued your interest. You've probably been following news reports, hearing of higher review dividends—after all, eighteen-hundred and one is certainly a review return number we can all aspire to. And while that's certainly true, there is an extremely high turn-over rate for NOVEL LENGTH fanfictions of this kind. Why don't you and I start with something a little more basic today?

I see. You're a newcomer here. Or you've had some bad fanfiction investment dealings in the past—it's nothing to be ashamed of. This fanfiction stock market is a tough place to do business. That's what I'm here for: to research, advise, and manage your FANFIC account. And none is too small. I was a man of humbler means myself when I began this game. And regardless of how much or little you choose to invest with us, it will always be a pleasure doing business.

Oh, that's fine…fine. Just fine. Perhaps some other time?

But before you go, I'd like to make sure we set you up an account at the very least. Whether you're looking to establish a READING ONLY trust, or to develop a MULTI-FIC porfolio, Wayne Enterprises is always here to help.

* * *

Hello. You've reached Wayne Enterprises. Your call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes. Please note due to the proximity of the holiday weekend, Wayne Enterprises is not accepting requests for BETA-reading at this time. If you know your party's extension, please—

***beop***

Lucius Fox is not available right now. But if you would like to leave your name, number, and a brief message, he will return your call as soon as possible. Director Fox can also be reached during his regularly scheduled office hours at 5 pm on Fridays.


	2. Preliminary Findings

**To: foxl. WE. net**

**From: enigma. WE. net**

**CC: Lex Luthor, Miranda Tate, Bruce Wayne**

**Subject: Project update**

**attachment: WE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT QUALITY INITIATIVES REAL TIME ANALYSIS:**

Date of publication: 29/03/12

Product market time: 7 days

OW Hits: 32 (subdivide individual viewers: 28)

Total Hits: 38 (subdivide individual viewers: 33)

Total product dividends: 2 reviews = 6% review returns

Percentage domestic market (hits): 52.62% Foreign interest: 47.38%

* * *

Director Fox,

My department has analyzed this week's traffic and review statistics, but I for one remain uncertain of the accuracy of the predictive value of this limited data set. I'd encourage a prolonged study due to the implementation of the project so close to a major holiday for a more accurate reflection of the current market trends.

Sincerely,

E. Nigma, CPA

PS: another of my own little creations. If you can guess it, Foxy, I'll give you a prize.

_Two by two_

_Colored hues_

_I live inside_

_My throne of bone_

_Close me tightly_

_Open wide_

_Light shines brightly_

_Time to hide_

_Clad in flesh_

_Trimmed in hair_

_You cannot see me_

_Yet I am there._


	3. Professionalism and Profile Management

Well, look at that. You've come back. It's a pleasure seeing you again. I hear from my secretary you're interested in starting an account—or improving your current one. Let's take a look:

My, my. Now that _is_ a screen name. And while I see the importance of tradition and humor when starting up a business, you have to understand that some….well, let's just say that some level of originality can prove to be detrimental.

Oh, I'm not saying that at all. In fact, I'd say the opposite. I'd encourage you to keep this account as personalized as you can. But I'll still have you consider this change of name form as well. Many of my clients have found that something as simple as a little professionalization has boosted their FANFIC appeal. And you and I both know what some better public relations can do for your image and review portfolio.

Let's take a look at this profile you brought with you.

…I see.

It's a daunting task, I agree. Many of my new clients have the same reaction: either a shortcoming of information, or simply a wealth of copy-pastes. As we have limited time, why don't we just go over some of the more common pitfalls that beginning investors encounter? Then you can think about implementing any changes on your own.

Well, I'm sure by now in your writing career you've heard an adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words"—don't you wish we had the intellectual rights to that—and the fanfiction stock market is no exception. With this new cover feature, it's now more important than ever to be keeping up appearances. Having a profile picture is one thing, but for your individual FANFIC investments, I'd suggest either a neutral or more applicable illustration. Over the years, I've found something from the DC universe can leave a good impression with other WE investors.

Now about that profile…it's good sense to let people know just who'll they'll be doing business with. I prefer the personal touch myself, but in these days of technology, we all understand it's not always possible to meet face to face. And while not every single FANFIC reading investor cares who they do business with—as long as that business is good—you'll find keeping an updated, professional profile can do you and your FANFIC net reviews a world of good.

I'll let you think about that on your own time. It's a hefty decision, as you're well aware. And while my office is always available for answering questions, if you want to do the market research yourself I can direct you to an all fandom-wide polling done by our R and D team. I myself am of the opinion—if you don't mind my saying so—that your peers and fellow FANFIC investors might just have a better idea of how to manage that aspect of this business than I do. Don't let that alarm you-we still do our best to keep track of current trending here at Wayne Enterprises. But, if you're interested, you'll find the results of that study were published publically on the fanfiction market strategies guide, under a WRITERS ANONYMOUS forum.

I see. You're still not sure if the fanfiction market is right for you. I understand it can be a daunting decision, but let me recommend something that might not require so much of your time. A READING ONLY trust requires minimal personal investment, but allows good insight into the fanfiction market. That's right—you don't have to be a business owner or a publishing FANFIC author to compete on the fanfiction stock market. By creating a Wayne Enterprises account and fanfiction profile, you'll be better able to keep track of your fandom investments. I image managing your multiple fandoms, FANFICs, and author follows and favorites will become much simpler if you place them in an account with us. Wayne Enterprises can track your chosen authors, their FANFICs, and allow you inside access to their investment data. That's right—by favoriting or following the authors of successful FANFIC stock, you will receive exclusive access to FANFIC investment opportunities of similar quality, all hand-selected by our top investors.

…and I'd say _that_ is something to think about.

You'll have to understand, however, that this strategy will significantly limit your reviews. But you'll still have access to all the social networking and FANFIC favorite portfolio advice from some of Wayne Enterprises' top-grossing investors such as J-Horror Girl, HoistTheColours, and Lauralot.

Well, that's fine. I do believe that checking their favorited investment portfolios and review returns is an excellent idea before making the final decision to invest with us.

No, no. I'm not offended at all. It's just good business, and it's quite good sense. A very practical approach, if you don't mind my saying so. Here at Wayne Enteprises, we believe a pragmatic attitude will take you far in the fanfiction world. And—if you'll agree to invest here with us—we'd like to take you further still.

Well, if that's all for now, I'll let you get going. I do hope we see you here again soon. And—like always—it's been a pleasure doing business.

* * *

Hello. You've reached Wayne Enterprises. Your call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes. Please note due to the high volume of callers, Wayne Enterprises is not accepting requests for BETA-reading at this time. If you know your party's extension-

***beop***

Lucius Fox is not available right now. But if you would like to leave your name, number, and a brief message, he will return your call as soon as possible. Director Fox can also be reached during his regularly scheduled office hours at 5 pm on Fridays.


	4. Progress Report

**To: foxl. WE. net**

F**rom: enigma. WE. net**

**CC: Lex Luthor, Miranda Tate, Bruce Wayne**

**Subject: Last week's publication**

**attachment: WE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT QUALITY INITIATIVES REAL TIME ANALYSIS**

Date of publication: 29/03/12

Product market time: 14 days

Total product dividends: 8 reviews=7.00% review returns

Total Hits: 116 views (subdivide individual viewers:66)

Percentage domestic market: 63.79% Foreign interest: 36.21%

Director Fox,

My department is now in initial concurrence on your belief that an early weekend update maximizes both exposure and profit from the foreign and domestic markets. We will continue to analyze data trends as the investigation proceeds.

Sincerely,

E. Nigma, CPA

PS: Eyes? You got lucky last time, Foxy. Bet you can't do it again:

_They say all roads_

_Will lead to Rome_

_They said all roads _

_Would lead to home_

_The roads are straight_

_They do not bend_

_What will I find at journey's end?_


	5. Trading Floor Trends

Well, well, well. You're back again, I see. And with an impressively improved profile page, I can't help but notice. I hope this means we'll be doing more business together. We here at Wayne Enterprises are always ready to help in any way we can.

Today I thought we'd take a tour. This office, well, as spacious as it is it starts to feel more like a cage what with the weekend coming. And since it's Friday evening, the Wayne Enterprises trading floor is at is usual weekly frenzy. What would you say to a stroll, and we'll see where all this fanfiction business is being done?

What's that? Oh, not to worry, not to worry. We've taken some extra precautions since that Bane business here last summer. Our trading floor is one of the safest places in Gotham City, I can assure you.

It's wonderful to hear you're making good use of your READING ONLY trust. It might be early days for you as a fanfiction investor, but it's never too early to start learning the tricks of the trade. Before you decide to take that second step to investing FANFICs of your own, it's good to know the market and the audience you'll be selling to.

Don't be shy, now. That's only the JUST IN box. Do you see how fast new and updated FANFICs are pushed aside? They trend down the lists as time goes on…and as you can see, no M rated fics allowed. With only the top 100 fandoms listed to filter, it's a tough market for a fandom as small as ours—especially given the Mature proclivities of our FANFIC writers. You'll find slightly around 29% of all of Wayne Enterprises FANFICs are never even listed.

Luckily for us, we've got the MOVIE category selection. Where, I'm happy to tell you, Wayne Enterprises has held on strongly to the top ten position for the last eight years. As you can see, there are only twenty-five results per viewing page, with more FANFICs pouring in every minute. With all that incoming traffic, it can take several hours for a newly updated FANFIC to make its way onscreen. Equally, an author can't publish their FANFIC too early in the course, as you can see it can easily become buried and forgotten. It's a tough market to corner, and the key as a FANFIC investor is to learn to manipulate the statistics to your advantage.

You'll see the key to selling FANFIC stock and receiving those nice review dividends is supply and demand. When a fandom grows popular, or a new addition is made to an existing canon, more readers are drawn to it than ever before.

And luckily, there's the RATINGS filter, too, which allows you viewing access to FANFICs of a more mature nature.

Let's take a look at the stock exchange back in July 2005, shall we? Well, well, that _was_ a great time to enter the market. Very few fics, and in very high demand. The review returns then were wonderful. There was also an sharp increase in this fandom back in July 2008, as you might have guessed. The WE fandom was at its peak in those days, as evidenced by our top 10 highest grossing FANFICS of all time, if we broaden our perspective to the ALL RATINGS category. You'll see seven invested heavily in JOKER FICS, Inc., and their dividends were quite impressive. This investor, Paradisical815, went directly into the BANE UNITED stock last summer at a time before many other Bane-centric FANFICs had hit the market. CRANE Corp. did well in those initial days, but the over-abundance of sellers resulted in market saturation and review dilution. As you can see, only two Crane-centric FANFICs made it to the top of our WE all-time review investment list.

That's right. You're quite observant-not many of our investors notice that. Both Number I and Number 10 on that list were written by the same FANFIC author, who prefers for anonymity's sake to be known to other investors as alias 'J-Horror Girl'. My advice to any beginning investor would be to examine her proven business model to improve their fanfiction performance and review success.

You'll also have to keep stock RATINGS in consideration. While there are a variety of RATINGS to choose from, for the most review returns, we can narrow down our market considerably. Here, let me pull of these latest statistics, compiled by Mr. Nashton. Here we are, then. As you can see, total WE investments, as of today, include 6342 individual FANFICs:

K ratings 342

K+ ratings 751

T ratings 3194

M ratings 1854

Looking at Mr. Nashton's data, we can calculate a projected review plot. The current fandom trend is a bell-shaped curve with a right-sided tail-but don't let me bore you with the raw statistics. While fics of any RATINGS may receive high numbers of reviews, a higher percentage of both T and M rated fics fall into the multiple hundred review category. By narrowing the margins of your FANFIC investments to WE readers' preferences, you can maximize on your predicted review returns.

Let's go back to our three largest investing opportunities: CRANE Corp., JOKER FICS, and BANE UNITED. While all three have had their time in the spotlight, JOKER FICS has withstood the test of time. Always a solid investment, even when the fanfiction market stalled back in 2009, these FANFIC investors still made review profits. You have to be careful with JOKER FICS conglomerates, though. It's a competitive market, with quite a few flamers. Any aspiring FANFIC investor will be held to the very highest of standards. But don't let that put you off.

CRANE Corp. isn't a bad investment, not at all, but it hasn't done as well as JOKER FICS in the long term. It has been a bit of a disappointment to some heavily-vested shippers belonging to CRANE Corp. We here at Wayne Enterprises were just as shocked as they were when the markets stalled, given the ample amount of canon source material from all three of those Nolan-movies. But I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

…oh? BANE UNITED, then? Their initial market exposure has been impressive indeed, but it's a little early still to know the long-term data. While I certainly can't share any inside market information, it's been no secret on our quarterly reports that our analysts are predicting a far-reaching future, with a slow but steady downwards popularity trend over the next six to twelve months.

Well, things are starting to heat up in here, and with working so long alone in the R and D department, I've come to prefer some solitude to the presence of crowds. I think you've seen enough to get yourself started, so let's go ahead and leave them to it.

I'm not as young as I once, was, that's for certain. You see, this fanfiction business, it's a younger man's game. While you'll find some excellent, more mature writers in the Wayne Enterprises fandom, they tend to update seldomly. But their FANFICs and investing history are still there, and with a little digging you can learn a lot from their experience.

I hope today's tour gave you some additional fanfiction investment ideas, if even to check out some of those favorited portfolios we discussed. Following and favoriting authors with good review returns will enable you to connect better with the FANFIC market, as well as understand the demands of potential readers should you ever decide to upgrade your account with us.

Until next week, then. And—like always—it's been a pleasure doing business.

* * *

Hello. You've reached Wayne Enterprises. Your call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes. Please note that due to high caller volumes, Wayne Enterprises is not accepting requests for BETA-reading at this time. If you know your party's extension, please—

***beop***

Lucius Fox is not available right now. But if you would like to leave your name, number, and a brief message, he will return your call as soon as possible. Director Fox can also be reached during his regularly scheduled office hours at 5 pm on Fridays.


	6. Unexpected Outcomes

To: foxl .WE. net

From: enigma . WE. net

CC: Lex Luthor, Miranda Tate, Bruce Wayne

Subject: Last week's publication

attachment: WE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT QUALITY INITIATIVES REAL TIME ANALYSIS:

Date of publication:29/03/12

Product market time: 21 days

Total views: 172 (subdivide individual viewers: 84)

Review Returns: 8.14%

Percentage domestic market: 31.40% Foreign interest: 68.60%

Director Fox,

We're beginning to see the data emerge. Currently, it appears as though only eight percent of our views are bringing in review profit, with significant decrease over forty-eight hours time. I'll also recommend pushing back the publishing window by 14 hours time to correspond with Friday weekend traffic in our largest foreign investors. Marketing initiatives reveal keen public interest in OC creation, so I'm advocating for a change in our strategies to appeal to this growing demographic. Our PR team has recommended against the addition of mid-weekly updates for that smaller yet consistent weekday crowd, as it has netted no reviews so far.

Sincerely,

E. Nigma, CPA

PS: Death? I'll give it to you. So you're a nihilist—isn't it depressing? Try this one:

_The dark fakir_

_The friendless man_

_Whatever you call me_

_Is what I am_

_I wear a mask _

_to cover my face_

_I tell a lie _

_Then retreat in disgrace_

_Who am I?_


	7. Assessing the Audience

Well, well. Back again. I hope this means I can count on your interest in investing even more creative resources with Wayne Enterprises. It's always a pleasure doing business.

What's that?

I see. So you are interested in developing a FANFIC of your own. That's excellent news! It's a hefty investment, time-consuming and what have you, but in the end I believe you'll find the dividends to be more than compensatory.

Where to begin? Well, that depends on what sort of FANFIC you have in mind. In general, WE client proposals fall into two essential categories: canon-centric, or Other Character-centric fanfictions.

We've already discussed some of the other important points, such as corporate villain choice and rating, but the centricity of your investment is crucial for us to understand how to best develop a marketing strategy for your FANFIC submission. Those FANFICs with T ratings tend to be the most popularly consumed, and those with a definite Corporate Villain association tend to generate the most review revenue. Given this most recent statement from our PR and marketing division, your safest, most conservative choice would be either a JOKER Inc. or BANE UNITED fanfiction proposal.

Well now. That was the _easy_ part. Next we have to decide who and what you'll write about. I can tell you've done a considerable amount of thinking, and you feel ready to take on this challenge. But before I let you go, let's consider a customizable generic start-up template:

Audience

Character

Point of View

Plot

Publication

A very good question. Knowing the fanfiction audience you're targeting can help you decide character choice, plot development, and allow you to create a completely customized publication goal that will best suit your advertising needs.

Now, we here at Wayne Enterprises aren't ones for discrimination, but you have to understand a large proportion of our clients and investors are female. Studies done even way back in those 1970's your parents keep telling you about show fanfiction to be female-dominated, at 94% or greater. Over 60% of fanfiction readers are unmarried, or indicate no current long-term relationship. Female FANFIC authors tend to be years younger than their male counterparts, and female FANFIC readers are four years younger than beginning FANFIC authors. And, as I'm sure you're all well aware, the average age of internet access and autonomy is decreasing. The largest fanfiction audience is teenage to twenty-something year-old girls.

Well, as I'm sure you can guess, I'm a man who believes in equality. I don't mind at all that most of my clients are female—but I do my best to keep Mr. Wayne away from the public side of Wayne Enterprises for that very reason. I'm sure you've heard of his…let's just say less than professional reputation on those matters.

And, although Wayne Enterprises boasts proud FANFIC reading and writing participation from around the globe, the majority of our investments are currently in English. Even amongst non-native speakers, 40% will publish in English, and over 80% will read FANFICs in English…and that data comes from a study done of all FANDOMS way back in 2004. If we take a quick look here at my corporate data—can you see this alright?—we see the trend is much stronger here at Wayne Enterprises:

6356 total Wayne Enterprises FANFIC investments

5958 English

90 French

63 Spanish

15 Portuguese

13 German

5 Polish

2 Russian

1 Indonesian

1 Hungarian

1 Italian

1 Finnish

Percentage English: 94.16%

_Ninety-four percent_. Now _that's_ a majority of the market if I ever saw one. Mr. Nigma and myself aren't currently certain on exactly why this phenomenon occurs, but we do know market trends when we see them. Looking at our own data, we see our four most reliable markets are the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom in descending order. For now, we speculate it might be because our CANON is English-based, or simply due to linguistic globalization secondary to the advent of popular entertainment media and the internet. There's also the issue of access in many developing nations. Whatever the reason, investing in English language fanfiction despite your language of birth is an acceptable and quite encouraged business practice.

And as any Wayne Enterprise investor will tell you, ours is a FANDOM of support. While we've since outsourced our BETA-reader program to bring you the most cost-effective services, we can still point you to our list of WE-associated Beta's who would love to establish mutual partnerships and investment opportunities with you, regardless of whether you're a beginning writer, a non-native speaker, or both.

Goodness gracious. Is it that time again already? Well then, I'd better let you go. I hope you've found this meeting a productive use of your time…and I sincerely hope our talk on markets and audiences has given you a better idea for your FANFIC investment proposal.

Not to worry. We'll discuss characters next week, if you're available. Feel free to come in during our office hours, or just drop us a line if that won't fit your schedule. We here at Wayne Enterprises are always happy to help you to write well-reviewed FANFICs in whatever way we can.

I'll look forward to it. Until then.

…and, like always, it's been a pleasure doing business.

* * *

Hello. You've reached Wayne Enterprises. Your call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes. Please note that due to high caller volumes, Wayne Enterprises is not accepting requests for BETA-reading at this time. If you know your party's extension, please—

***beop***

Lucius Fox is not available right now. But if you would like to leave your name, number, and a brief message, he will return your call as soon as possible. Director Fox can also be reached during his regularly scheduled office hours at 5 pm on Fridays.


	8. Technical Difficulties

**To: foxl. WE. net**

**From: enigma. WE. net**

**CC: Lex Luthor, Miranda Tate, Bruce Wayne**

**Subject: Last week's publication**

**attachment: WE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT QUALITY INITIATIVES REAL TIME ANALYSIS**

Date of publication: 29/03/12

Product market time: 28 days

Total product dividends: 17 reviews=7.20% review returns

Total Hits: 236 (subdivide individual viewers: 100)

Percentage domestic market: 72.03% Foreign interest: 27.07%

Director Fox,

My apologies in the delay with implementation of a Thursday evening release. Our department suffered a temporary set back when our computer system went temporarily offline. IT has since settled the issue: a batarang was discovered severing the main power source to the R and D analytical facilities. The GCPD and FBI have been notified of the Batman's interference with R and D systems as well as criminal trespass on WE property.

We've seen an enormous spike in US based viewer activity over the previous weekend, which has considerably altered our market projections.

Additionally, we have seen tremendous extinction of potential readers between chapters 1 and 2, and chapters 3 and 4, respectively. Each extinction is over 50% loss of viewership. It would appear your efforts to market this product alone are unable to carry the audience as expected. At this time I recommend the addition of a celebrity spokesperson or more aggressive campaigning to return our review profits and viewership to their respective goals. Bruce Wayne and Vicky Vale have both been nominated by Marketing and HR as potential candidates. We await your reply.

Sincerely,

E. Nigma, CPA

PS: What, no guesses? Here, try this, I've made it simpler for you:

_Blacker than night_

_More fearsome than fright_

_A warrior wight _

_I hear with my sight._

_Who am I?_


	9. Quite the Character

Now the thing you have to understand about character is…well, perhaps that's the wrong place to start. This is probably going to be one of our most serious discussions, as character is the single strongest driving factor in your FANFIC investment's ultimate success.

Go on and help yourself to some coffee. Or tea, if you prefer—Mr. Wayne has got himself a butler who swears he can't live without. We might as well make ourselves comfortable. It's looking to be an awful long night.

Why, that's awfully kind of you, but no. I'll just stick to water. This old body's just keeps getting older—not that you have anything to worry about. I'll still be fit as a fiddle for this CEO business for many years to come. The doctors say I've just got to work harder for it, as if this old man didn't work hard enough already.

It's great to have you back, especially for tonight. Tonight's topic is special, instrumental, really, in making sure you get the most out of your WE writing experience. You come to be my age and you start to realize nothing lasts forever. This fine building and all these fancy gadgets I've created over the years…they're designed to endure, but time will slow them down and they'll die, same as the rest of us. But your intellectual and creative endeavors? Those will live on.

I'm sure you've heard the phrase by now, that the eyes are the windows into the soul. I've got myself a fancy pair of shutters, now, haven't I? And some permanent streaking, I'm afraid—my doctor likes to say it's from a cataract, but I know better. My two grandkids leave them all over the windows at my house. What you see is a proud grandfather looking out at you through these finger-smudged windows, that's all. Because ultimately a character is a window into the author's soul. Now you can study and you can fret and plan and research, you can sever all ties in time and gender, but in the end, every character you create will still be subconscious reflection of you.

Odds are, you probably already have a character in mind. Now I don't care if it's an OC Entrepreneurship or an in-CANON Loan, character is character. People…well, we'll just be people, won't we? There is just no getting us down. Not for long. We bounce back. We try again. We build things and rebuild things, bigger and better. You've got to keep the dream alive, have to stay a little optimistic, even here in Gotham City. When you invest in character, you invest in creativity. You invest in the human soul.

At least, that's what Mr. Wayne says. Old Thomas Wayne, if you understand. He had this philosophy that when you invest a character with Wayne Enterprises, you weren't just making a business transaction, you were investing a part of yourself as well. And that's a nice thought, don't you think?

Perhaps we've gotten too metaphysical. I have a tendency to do that these days. And you've been so polite, but I'm sure you didn't stop by just to hear this old man's ramblings.

True, true. On to the science, shall we?

Writing, as you're probably well aware, isn't a visual medium. It's immersive—even much more so than that television and video game nonsense you younger generations get tangled up in—and it's interactive.

No, you didn't hear me wrong. I said it's interactive.

Now, Lucius, you might be thinking, how can simple text on a page, my words, possibly form any sort of interaction with my potential readers?

It's simple, really. So simple, in fact, it's one of the hardest things for any writer to grasp. You see, you're so used to experiencing the world through the complexities of your vision and your other senses that you forget to experience it with your mind. All those signals, sight and hearing, smell and taste, balance and temperature, not to mention the constant bombardment with modern stimuli from social and technological sources distract your brain from what you truly are. There's never an empty moment for your mind and self to experience anything but a surrogate reality. Even your entertainment, your movies and games and your twitter are painstakingly rendered audiovisual experiences, designed by scientists and psychology to be as addicting as possible.

Writing isn't a visual medium, but it involves the eyes, surely. It's not auditory or verbal, but it enlists the linguistic centers of the brain. Reading is immersive and interactive because it actively engages the imagination centers of the brain—that essence of unique creativity that is you—to respond to cues and even more importantly, the absence of cues to create an entire world around you.

Writing is a process that we create together. And the best part is, it happens entirely without you realizing it.

It is a terrifying truth, isn't it? To sit and think for a moment that you've been hearing this all in the voice of an actor paid to be me. I might even go so far as to say you probably think I look like Morgan Freeman.

No need to be shy about it, now. And I can't blame you if you did. I'd like to think that as well—he is, after all, one of the greatest in the business. Intelligent, and well-spoken, too. But to be honest, I don't look or sound like _anything_. I'm just a voice, a voice and an image inside your head that your brain is projecting to you, right now, as we…

…speak. For want of a better term for it.

Writing is decidedly not a visual medium. It's an interactive, immersive mechanism that engages your reader's imagination. And while it's always nice to give that reader some basic cues as to the basic blueprints her brain should build…

You've heard a picture is worth a thousand words, I suppose. But it's not true here: creating an exact mental image for your audience _isn't _worth one thousand words. I'd go so far as to say it's not even worth one hundred. Words, words, words. We waste so very many words on things that aren't important, on capturing a mental photograph that will never be seen. If you want to create a compelling character, whether a human or even a City like mine, you've got to master the art of nuance.

Now if you were reading some comic book—graphic novel, as the euphemism goes, they still called them comic books back in my day—you'd have all the disadvantages of working with a solely visual art form.

That's right. Disadvantages.

You'd have to consider at color schemes, lines of perspective, framing, you'd have to pencil then ink then color. If you were writing a movie you'd have to cast and produce and direct, and the actual dialogue and the characters would be the least of your worries. Language is such a beautiful thing, simple but versatile. She can do all that and then some for your characters and your story.

That's right. This is one of those rare instances in life that even a businessman like myself will tell you that less is more. Let your relationship with your readers be one of mutual creativity. The more liberty you give them to engage themselves, the more appreciative of the story and its characters their brain will be.

I'm sure this talk hasn't been what you were expecting. I hope I didn't disappoint. Your comments are always welcome, as your individual intellectual experiences here at Wayne Enterprises help to enhance the experiences for all. I'd like to branch out a bit, and ask you to do a little outside reading of your own. Take a look at some stories—I could tell you WE properties, but that would be more than a little self-serving, don't you agree?—this week, and sit down and ask yourself why it is you find them and the characters within them so compelling.

I'm a firm believer that the best tool in your author's arsenal is becoming a better reader. Only then will you become a better writer.

So you enjoy a challenge, do you? Now that's the spirit I was hoping for, that grit your teeth, loosen your tie and roll up your sleeves approach that makes Wayne Enterprises what it is today. Are you ready?

Are you sure?

Then I'm going to give you the One-Ten Words Challenge Test.

…are you really sure? Alright, if you're positive. Here it goes:

Describe your character, indicating everything important the reader must know about their past, their aspirations, strengths, weaknesses, and physicality.

But wait: you only have one word.

Now Lucius, that's impossible, you might say. It's impossible that such a word can exist. It'll be difficult, but that word is there. You might even have to go out and look for it in an encyclopedia or a thesaurus, but once you find that word, that word will be yours forever.

I have a word. We all do. I might not have been so subtle about it over the course of the evening, but here it is, nonetheless: Grandfatherly. Or, if you prefer something not quite so obvious or adverbial: Mild.

Too much for a late Friday night? I know my own brain gets sluggish by the end of the week. That's why it's so easy just to turn on the television or some music rather than sitting down to read. But that mental fatigue won't go away just staring at a glowing screen. You've got to exercise your brain in order to let it rest. Let's try the ten word challenge instead:

Ten words. Same criteria as above.

There now. If it makes you feel any better, I'll go first: Regal. Meek. Intelligence. Wit. Conscience. Trust. Peace. Patience. Elderly. Dark.

Now, I could have spent a thousand words over five pages instead trying to convince you I look and sound like this Morgan Freeman. But I hope, from our dialogue here, and the briefest images I gave you above, that you can picture me—however you choose to see or hear me—crystal clear.

The One-Ten Words Challenge Test is a patented test exclusively offered to our clients here at Wayne Enterprises, developed at our own Research and Development Labs for bringing you the maximum FANFIC reading and writing pleasure. Naturally, the internet being what it is, we can't expect to hold on to any exclusive intellectual property forever. But regardless of where you first encounter the One-Ten Words Challenge Test, know they were developed here at Wayne Enterprises out of our office's concern and initiative for your FANFIC investment experience.

These two tests will work equally well for beginners as for experienced writers, for OC Entrepreneurs or those more comfortable with in-Canon Loaning. Or, perhaps if you're still teetering on the brink of whether to invest a FANFIC with Wayne Enterprises or just continuing to enjoy your READING ONLY TRUST, you can apply this test to other FANFIC works as well.

My, my, would you look at that. I've gone and kept you too long. I'd hate to think I've overstayed my welcome. It might be my office…but it is your _mind, _after all_._

I hope tonight was worth the wait, and I appreciate your patience with our technical issues earlier this evening. Until next week…or whenever you'd like. After all, it's easy to create a character: a little imagination is the only thing you'll need.

But before I go, might I just say, as always, it's been a pleasure doing business.

* * *

Hello. You've reached Wayne Enterprises. Your call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes. Please note due to the high volume of callers, Wayne Enterprises is not accepting requests for BETA-reading at this time. All One-Ten Word Challenge Tests will be reviewed on a first come, first served basis only. If you know your party's extension, please—

***beop***

Lucius Fox is not available right now. But if you would like to leave your name, number, and a brief message, he will return your call as soon as possible. Director Fox can also be reached during his regularly scheduled office hours at 5 pm on Fridays.


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